Possibly the single best pre-widescreen lappy ever made, Mac or PC, was Apple’s PowerBook G3, codenamed Pismo. Apple introduced it in early 2000 to instant praise and adulation. It came with a 400 or 500MHz PowerPC G3 CPU, two PC-100 SO-DIMM slots for up to 1GB RAM (Apple only rated it for 512MBs), a 6 or 18GB ATA-66 drive, a 6X DVD-ROM drive, a 14.1″ Active Matrix TFT display which could handle 24-bit color and was driven by an ATI Rage128 video sub-system with 8MBs of VRAM driving the gorgeous 1024×768 backlit display, 2 USB and 2 FireWire ports, a 56k modem, 10/100 Ethernet, optional internal AirPort, and a PCMCIA Type-II slot. All this was swaddled in the single sexiest case ever devised for a machine, making it even more desirable by Apple lovers everywhere. Continue reading »

written by Tyler Regas

I admit it. I’m a retro nerd, big time. I love old gear and software. I happen to love the look of Mac OS 8/9 and truly miss it. I wish I could apply the look to my MacBook Pro without installing potentially system corrupting software. I’d really like to see Apple just integrate it just to show for once they have feelings… but I digress. While I was over at Panic looking over Coda I stumbled around and found this cool story about how Panic’s seminal Audion MP3 player software came to be. I was very fond of it back in the day and seeing this has prompted me to dig out my PowerBook 3400c, reinstall OS9.22, and fire up some Audion. Man, I miss my Pismo.

written by Tyler Regas

There’s apparently very little like posting a complete story via one’s own Nokia N810. It’s made even more special because I’m not typing it in using the in-built keyboard. Nay, I’m using an Apple 2nd Gen Bluetooth Keyboard, the tiny little silver one.  Uaing this little battery-powered wonder allows me to type a long closer to my regular speed, and on the miniscule N810, its even more portable. I’m working on a Wi-Fi connection, but I can easily imagine doing this via a data connection on a phone. I would not say however, that this is a replacement for a lappy, but its working damn well for what it is. Earlier today I used “rdesktop” to connect to a Terminal Server which then runs Windows in a remote session., Loathe though I am to admit it, it was quite nice to see it working so well. I’m going to be posting a  late-season review of the Nokia N810 soon, so keep your eyes peeled.

written by Tyler Regas

Gizmodo has a great little piece on some guy who has managed to get Mac OS X Leopard, that’s 10.5 for the few of us who don’t do names, onto an MSI Wind micro lappy. Yeah! Here’s the Giz piece and here’s a link to the Insanely Mac Forum posting (note, its in Spanish). Here, then, is a picture to whet your appetite…

written by Tyler Regas

Panasonic has made a real business out of its ToughBook line, now offering the new CF-U1 model. The MIL-STD ruggedized UMPC weighs in at 2.3 lbs. and features Intel’s new Atom CPU clocked at 1.33GHz. Its also rather packed with a 1D and 2D barcode scanner, 5.6″ 1024×600 touchscreen LCD display, a backlit keyboard, 2MP camera, options for 16GB or 32GB SSD, an optional fingerprint scanner, optional 3G and GPS, and a claimed 9 hour battery life with dual hot-swappable modules. It ships with Vista Business Edition (downgradeable to XP Pro for a fee), but if that sounds like the shiz to you, it can all be yours for a mere US$2,500.

written by Tyler Regas

Its official, folks! OpenMoko is announcing that its Neo FreeRunner open source handset will be available July 4th. Purchase it for US$399 from the site and they will start shipping units on July 7th. The Neo FreeRunner is a unique piece of kit in today’s handset market in that it runs GNU/Linux and its hardware specifications and even the cases CADD files are availalbe at no cost. This allows anyone to modify every single aspect of the handset to meet their own needs. OpenMoko was spun off from FIC, the Taiwanese motherboard and PC system components maker, last year after an extremely popular developer release of an earlier version of the handset.

written by Tyler Regas

People really seem to love FaceBook and recent numbers seem to indicate they’re loving it more than they are FaceBook, though I really can’t fathom why. Now Palm is in the act with a FaceBook client for a short list of their handsets, namely the Centro, 680, and 755p. Specifically, it will work on Palm OS 5.4.9, so don’t get any ideas of getting it to work on your Treo 180. What’s nice is that its free. Cool.

written by Tyler Regas

When you have kids things just generally take longer. Sadly, technology doesn’t really make it any easier. You might be surprised to discover that I am not a PIM freak. In fact, I try to use PIMs as little as possible and I’m pretty successful with that effort. I’ve never found a PIM which liked me. There are plenty of them out there, too. I just can’t find one that works with what I like, nor is there likely to ever be one. I’m a nerd first and a journalist second. I get loads of gear all the time. Just check out my reviews, which really only represents about a third of what I get. Considering that the majority of the gear I get is mobility enabling, I should be able to find something which suits me and my needs. Continue reading »

written by Tyler Regas

The great thing about being a nerd is that you look everywhere to find out about new kit. In this case, I was watching a recent episode of Beyond Tomorrow on the Science Channel and they showed off this little gadget. This is the Yamaha EZ-AG Digital Guitar. Its not a real guitar, mind you, though it does have strings to strum and a neck to play chords and notes on, but each string and fret position is actually a key, like on a keyboard. It can be used as a MIDI device, but its mission is to teach people how to play the guitar, and I think its fantastic. Its retailing for US$199 and it runs on batteries! Neato Toledo!

written by Tyler Regas